No point doing it on normal at all, but it does make the fight a tiny bit easier, you should do it with the Protectors trinket though since it gives a pretty big dmg decrease for 75% of the Blood Rage Phase.

It is done one heroic for a few reasons, The debuff (displaced energy) now also has a root so in groups without many freedoms it is pretty tough to manage if you are all in one place. Also it gives the tank doing it absolute crazy amounts of damage which helps with the somewhat tight enrage.

I would not recommend doing this on normal unless:

- Your group struggles to move into the cleave fast
- People with the debuff struggle to move out of the group fast
- You have a tank strong enough to just faceroll the amount of damage on normal

Just give it a try on your first pull do all the mechanics with the pieslices of doom normally and just try to eat the cleave alone. If it doesnt work, go to the normal tactic which is not a gigantic change on normal.

Best of luck in progression!

Edit some general tips:

Be spread out well, give everyone an area to stand in and tell them to make themselves familiar with it, since they will be there every week. Make sure these people dont lose orientation and run back into there position quickly after blood rage.

Have communication clear for the vortexes, so people can say "Hey dude I got this". Have a melee with strong defensives soak all melee puddles, ranged need to communicate so they are not missed. Set markers for the Cleaves before the breathe if you need to, if you have identified people who have problems coping with this mechanic I would recommend telling them to get the addon Malkorok Helper.

Soak all puddles, dont stand in the wrong piece of pie and stack for the cleave, run out with displaced energy and be aware of your zone and the people around you. This is one of the few fights I play with friendly nameplates on since it helps identify people around you to call them out when things are a bit hectic.

There's very little reason not to solo tank it even on normal. As long as you can survive, it makes the phase much easier as people can just stay spread out, and healers can dispel instantly instead of ensuring that the target has moved out of the group first. It also eliminates any possibility of having some people slow to react to the debuff. It will hurt if you stack and someone doesn't move.

Just make sure you go into the Blood Rage with Fortifying Brew, Dampen Harm, Zen Meditation and Guard ready and you should have no issues. For going into Bloodrage with no stacks, make sure that you're taunting at about 1 minute to Bloodrage, and your co-tank taunts at ~30 seconds to Bloodrage and your stacks will reset in time. If you mess up and still have some stacks at the start, Zen Meditation will let you survive with any number of stacks.

If you swap at 12 stacks exactly, the tank who starts will have stacks during Blood rage. If you swap a little later, the tank who starts will have no stacks for Blood rage. So it'll be something like this:

Here are a few quick helpful points that come from someone who has done it many times.

The Shield you obtain absorbs all forms of healing, so during the pull have the tanks pop a small cooldowns to reduce their damage taken until their shield is stabalised.

Once the whole raid can get the shield, I (a Mistweaver) like to pop a big healing cooldown to just get all the shields as high as possible. Things such as Revival, or Divine Hymn are quite nice, but be aware you won't have these for later, more healing intensive phases.

Have someone mark the areas where he has done the smash, with a World Marker. Everyone should simply stay away from them at the appropriate times.

Don't try to solo-tank this on Normal Mode. It doesn't make any difference, as this boss isn't complicated or hard in any way, so making it harder for yourself is going to get you no-where.

The pools must be soaked, but players should also pop a cooldown if their shield isn't quite strong enough to handle all the damage.

You'll get three smashes, then a transition into the Blood Rage, but after the Smash, there will be another set of pools. Have players remember that they need to get that pool soaked, and get into the Melee A.S.A.P.

If you're just now getting to Malkorok normal there's no way you should be trying to cheese mechanics like this.

I'd use a nicer tone, but this is true. The bosses leading up to Malkorok are not hard, but if you've struggled with them, you'll struggle with the upcoming bosses. There is no need to make life harder, simply follow the recommended tactics for your set up, and do a good job.

If you're just now getting to Malkorok normal there's no way you should be trying to cheese mechanics like this.

I kind of agree, but if they can do it, they should do it. P2 goes from being a fairly intense healing phase to a complete joke which frees up major healing CDs for capping shields at the beginning of P1, basically making the fight a pushover.

If you're just now getting to Malkorok normal there's no way you should be trying to cheese mechanics like this.

Perhaps we only started raiding last week as a guild, and only raid 5-6 hours a week. Please post constructively or not at all.

To people saying we've struggled. We had 2 wipes on iron jugger. 1 wipe on galak. 4 wipes on dark shamans. 1 wipe on naz. Sure we don't 1 shot bosses but I wouldn't say that means we're bad...

I was asking a simple question IF it was easier for me (as a brewmaster) to solo tank the blood rage phase to make it easier for others during progression, I see no reason why this involves any comment about our progress other than the fact you may be an elitist prick.

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Originally Posted by paraalso

There's very little reason not to solo tank it even on normal. As long as you can survive, it makes the phase much easier as people can just stay spread out, and healers can dispel instantly instead of ensuring that the target has moved out of the group first. It also eliminates any possibility of having some people slow to react to the debuff. It will hurt if you stack and someone doesn't move.

Just make sure you go into the Blood Rage with Fortifying Brew, Dampen Harm, Zen Meditation and Guard ready and you should have no issues. For going into Bloodrage with no stacks, make sure that you're taunting at about 1 minute to Bloodrage, and your co-tank taunts at ~30 seconds to Bloodrage and your stacks will reset in time. If you mess up and still have some stacks at the start, Zen Meditation will let you survive with any number of stacks.

If you swap at 12 stacks exactly, the tank who starts will have stacks during Blood rage. If you swap a little later, the tank who starts will have no stacks for Blood rage. So it'll be something like this:

Really, getting the arcing smash/breath right was the key for us. We tried the addon and marking slams, but they didn't work well for us. What did work was to put out a ring of raid markers around the boss. Each player had a set position - I'm green, for instance. After the 3rd smash, the people who never had to dodge a slam call out their color. So I'm green, as I said. If I didn't get a slam, I just call out "green safe" and everyone knows where to stack. If I had to move, I just listen for someone else to call out a safe zone and run there. No muss, no fuss. The only other real issue we had was soaking the puddles. There were three main issues here: 1) Puddles behind players, especially with one in front of them. We made our melee soak the innermost one, and trained everyone to do a quick 360 to spot any behind them to handle that. 2) Moving too soon to dodge breath. This just took a few deaths to break the habit of running early when you're in the middle of the death zone. 3) Overloads - it's not hard to have one player catch enough abilities that they can't afford to soak a puddle without dying. Once people started paying attention to their health, we could expand coverage to handle those as needed.

The rage itself doesn't feel like a big deal - we just stack and chain cooldowns. It's easy enough that we save some cooldowns for the end of the phase to build the bubbles back up.

Oh, one more hint - if you have a HoT class, have them load everyone up right before you start, and maybe pop healthstonses right at the start. That'll give you a big jump on the shields.

If you're just now getting to Malkorok normal there's no way you should be trying to cheese mechanics like this.

Boss progression is raid dependent while solo soaking Blood Rage is based mostly on the individual skill of the monk. I would absolutely suggest solo soaking if you know how to rotate CDs for 20s. Even with debuff stacks it shouldn't pose a problem if healers know to spam heal you. Over half of a blood rage a monk takes minor damage. The other half or less only Fort Brew is up.

I way to handle CDs is to start with Zen Med, as healers generally don't like an initial spike of damage, and some of them may still be moving. After that Fort Brew will last the rest of the time. Get hit a few times and healers may fall behind, DH for them to catch up. After that is off wait another hit or two for Guard. You may get hit one or two more times after that then it's over. Purify liberally.

Perhaps we only started raiding last week as a guild, and only raid 5-6 hours a week. Please post constructively or not at all.

To people saying we've struggled. We had 2 wipes on iron jugger. 1 wipe on galak. 4 wipes on dark shamans. 1 wipe on naz. Sure we don't 1 shot bosses but I wouldn't say that means we're bad...

I was asking a simple question IF it was easier for me (as a brewmaster) to solo tank the blood rage phase to make it easier for others during progression, I see no reason why this involves any comment about our progress other than the fact you may be an elitist prick.

Lol if you weren't so busy looking for a reason to bitch and moan defensively you'd see that my statement is entirely on topic and impersonal. It has nothing to do with being "elitist"; if your group is in a position where you are currently at Malkorok normal, you should do it the way it's intended rather than relying on one person who has to basically play perfectly during that phase. You're wasting your time and energy if you take it personally when you're assessed in such a manner.

What I'm saying about your guild applies to any guild in the universe with regards to Malkorok normal: If your guild is going to struggle on this boss then you're likely going to fail cheesing this mechanics in this way, and if your guild is not going to struggle then you should have no problem healing through this phase as it's intended to be healed. Besides, unless your guild likes to stand in things or let the polka dots explode, you really don't need raid cooldowns for the miasma phase.

Cheesing mechanics doesn't help too much on normal. It's not a dps check not is it a healing check. That being said, do it if you want. You're the one playing the game anyway.
And cut it out with the overly defensive attitude. Magpai made a perfectly neutral statement.

Lol if you weren't so busy looking for a reason to bitch and moan defensively you'd see that my statement is entirely on topic and impersonal. It has nothing to do with being "elitist"; if your group is in a position where you are currently at Malkorok normal, you should do it the way it's intended rather than relying on one person who has to basically play perfectly during that phase. You're wasting your time and energy if you take it personally when you're assessed in such a manner.

What I'm saying about your guild applies to any guild in the universe with regards to Malkorok normal: If your guild is going to struggle on this boss then you're likely going to fail cheesing this mechanics in this way, and if your guild is not going to struggle then you should have no problem healing through this phase as it's intended to be healed. Besides, unless your guild likes to stand in things or let the polka dots explode, you really don't need raid cooldowns for the miasma phase.